Goodmans

WEM

Tuac - disco stuff

BMG - amplifiers

Mega - loudspeakers

 

back in the days when Britain used to make things.......

 

Turner

 

Aslo some Bose type (lots of small drivers) speakers, think it stared with a K ?

I THINK BK Elecronics used to do them?

 

Paice - electronics

White - brilliant graphics

Eastmill - loudspeakers

 

Saxon (did they ever make anything good?)

Eurosound (used to make standard disco gear generally covered in orange vynide)

DJ Electronics

JPS Amplifiers

Simms Watts

 

Were those inefficient drivers called Titan by any chance or am I just rambling?

 

 

Oh and how about Orion Lighting and the wonderful Spirochaser? As it happens I know where to find Larry Wooden the old proprietor but do miss them.

I think this was to do with the address or visa versa, August House.

 

Wasn’t Aces a spin off (that’s not the right term but hopefully some pedant will step in) from Custom Sound of Oswestry?

Another speaker co was Richard Allan.

 

Definitely from that part of the country, hopefully John (Robbo) can confirm if he sees this thread.

Got bought out by EV who then nicked the basket design and folded the company.

ILP (used to make amp's) 

Calne cabinet makers (think that's how it's spelt) they used to do most of the woodwork for Citronic.

No don't think so, we used to buy them in from French France, nice little amp's for the money but not very powerful though.

http://www.ilpelectronics.com/index.asp" rel="nofollow - http://www.ilpelectronics.com/index.asp

IIRC Stephen & his family run an arts centre/venue the west country Tavistock Devon I believe. I think someone on this forum works there but can't remember who.

http://www.tavistockwharf.com/general.php" rel="nofollow - http://www.tavistockwharf.com/general.php

He still has a website selling his Ramjet systems, which are also used in his venue.

http://www.courtacoustics.net/" rel="nofollow - http://www.courtacoustics.net/ .

Here:  http://www.traynoramps.com/products.asp?type=9&cat=57&id=340" rel="nofollow - http://www.traynoramps.com/products.asp?type=9&cat=57&id=340

Wem. Still making Echo units. were pioneers with early PA and amps. should have remained at the top, but the brothers were born in the wrong decade.

Vitavox. Probably still making MOD stuff, which was their main thrust. They had an interesting factory from an engineering point of view.

Zoot Horn. An early horn bin system. weren't around very long.

Guass. They suffered because the speakers were not their main product. The main product was 64-1 tape duplicating machines. Decca and EMI had them.

Mega. Chris Sherwin and Pete Ross. Still doing stuff, but not Rock and Roll.

Turner. Mike Turner sold up and moved out years ago.

Lyon Forge. The man behind this is still active in Southend.

Harrison. Mike dissapeared to the Isle of Sark, probably to dig up some of his treasure.

Red. A blast from the past. Made small speakers only. came and went.

Soundout. Todd Wells. Went on to do big desks as Soudtracs and then onto to digital. was the first person to import Piezos. Motorola was the only one at the time.

TK. Dave Woods, another Southend man. Gave up and started a small courier company.

Paice Another Dave Collins involvement. 

White. Bill White in Sunderland. A copy of Orange with an obvious difference. 

JPS. New the boys well. No big capital to see it through.

DJ Electronics. Another Southend Company. They enjoyed success in the '70's.

Simms Watts. Dave Simms and Rick Watts. Quite striking gear at the time. I think it was Dave Simms who went on to do one of the first electronic drum kits. I could be wrong here, because the kit was known as Simmons I think. Who Knows. Simms Watts used RCF speakers in their cabs.

Vampower. My first 6 ch PA amp. Made by Geoff Johnson in Purley. At the time, around six other people were using the amp and badging it including Jennings (after vox) and Spectrum who were a band called Middle of the Road. Johnson also sold it under his own name.

Customsound. Barry Phillips. Nice Guy. Not Rock and Roll though. Not sure whether he ever connected with his customers.

Traynor. From Canada. Still making gear.

Austin Armstrong. Stopped when Dave ended his Life. His main man is on this forum.

Fal. They were also the Holding company for Fane in the early days.

S A I. I think it stood for Sound Advise Installations. Saw the product in the early days but never got involved.

Eastmill. Use to be called Westmill in Scotland. It became Eastmill when Neil moved south. He now fits luxury boats out. Has an office in Guilford.

Selmer. My first PA columns. No more PA but still involved in Brass and woodwind. which is what the company has always been about.

Reslo mics. My first mic on a Goosekneck. 

Vox. did a lot of pa stuff in the '60's Columns only though.

S.S.E. Was a brand before John adopted it. I believe it stood for Scenic Sounds Entertainment. 

Spectrum. This company was started by the Band that did Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. All Premises, no product. It failed.

E.S.E. Eric Snowball was a prominent player in the PA game. Did Roy Orbison and Jeff Beck tours etc. Had his own cans made. I think he still has his shop in Maidstone. 1 Upper Fant Street. Eric was and probably still is a Pedal steel player. His son Matt, who a lot more of you will know, is big in back line hire.

Well my mind has now gone blank, and I haven't even started on the Scotch yet, but more will come I'm sure. These are people who at one time or another did enter into PA. In the early days a lot of back line companies did it, including Marshall. which has just reminded me of another one.

Thor. Jim Marshall's son along with an incredible guitar player called Dave Roberts started this. It didn't last. Dave went to New Zealand or the other place close by.

That's it for now.

Bet your knackered now with all that typing!

I remember the Red acoustic speakers, cab made of metal with an 8" driver (or may have been 10") and active too very advanced to the day (as was the price) sounded ok at the time but had a self destruction thing going on.

(Thinking back they were 2 x 8" or 1 X 8")

I had a Reslo radio mic back then, It was crap but the first one that was affordable.

Mike Harrison, seem to remember reading he had past on to a better world (where they don't hot glue faders into mixers)

I still love the look of the Mega of London stuff and would love a complete system of it.

And don't forget to add JWP to that list, everyone thought he was a miserable git but was just very blunt (and very sharp) He did an awful lot of his own kit and was more of less a pioneer in the pub 80/disco scene back then.

He was also friends with most of the above especially Mike Harrison and Dave Martin who were a nightmare when the three of them went on the piss together.

 

 Yes It was Dave Collins. The two companies were never connected in business. Monitec and Austin Armstrong  happened afterwards.

It may only been a Rental company. I remember seeing the name on Monitors. Didn't they come out of Park Royal. 

I have had another thought, and I think it was High Life coming out of Park Royal but they were a rental company. A lot of rental companies built their own monitor systems and sometimes they built there smaller "B" systems.

I also Saw Fleetwood Mac at the Bath Pavilion, and the setup was the same except it was WEM. Mixers there were 2 WEM 5 channel Audio Masters linked together. That was also the first gig I ever saw where guitars were mic'd up. The guitar amps were Fender Champs standing on black columns. Wonderful stuff.

harrison is still around!

It was Audio Fidelity that owned Fane. I knew there was an "F" in it somewhere. I was wrong with the FAL link up.

 

(Now if you get that you really are in the old git club)

 

 

August.....

This was a wbin by august......

this was a 2x12 box by august....

McGregor. Seemed to do just budget stuff.

MM did PA cabs the bass bins looked like Elimiator cabs. Another Dave Collins enterprise.

Rauch PA amps. Met someone only once.

PSL. who could forget Roger Skuse and John Smith. John is still in Middlesbrough and Rog is in Turkey. Had a lot of fun with Mr. Skuse.

Canary Mixers. Bob Birthright. He runs a successful rehearsal and recording complex.

Park. They did PA. It was a Marshall offshoot when Rose Morris were distributors. The distribution limited ol' Jim so he came out with this product and sold it direct to the shops.

Epicentrum. Made cabs for these guys in the mid to late seventies.

Tony, I thought AMS used ATC - I seem to remember one of their sidefills (2x12, 1x9,HF) but I don't remember the usual Volt 'inside out' look.

Jazzo, When nick Cohen was using these speakers, the Spider frames had not been thought of. They came many years later. He used 8's and 10's and wrote a piece for a mag why multiple small speakers work better than single big ones.

 

@ Tony I remember our discussion about Dave Collins, C-Audio and Austin Armstrong a while back. I remembered how Dave wanted me to go to Cambridge and do some mods on his Austin Armstrongs. A sad loss.

 

Peter Wyngarde BTW was caught in Gloucester in a toilet doing 'summat' wrong. Was all over the local press. No Surprise.

 

I had a Saxon mixer and 2x 60W amp kits in 1974/5 .... crap!. Then I had a TUAC amp.... crap.

 

OK THEN!   GP Designs. George Pullin. They made PA cabs in Stonehouse, Glos. Lots of them back in the early 80's. I had a few from George as cheap as chips with EV15b's.

Yes, this was probably around the same time as the 3x12 mids. The bottom end was handled by a reflex cab with 4x12" ATCs, the top cab had two vertically arranged 10s or 12s with a HF horn and two 075 ring radiators underneath. I think they were deigned to be driven by the Midas/Martin Powerbloc(k?) amps.

  

    When I got into mobile DJing with a mate in the late 90s (at about 13 years old!) we inherited a load of old gear from his uncle which included two Sound Creations consoles, the decks in them were horrible plastic BSR things but the built in power amps were pretty good (looked like BK modules). We also had two Sound Creations light controllers (one three channel and one four) and loads of those Fal light boxes. I was chuffed to bits with it all at the time and we did loads of school discos and partys with it all.

 

Some GP cabs I had in 1982;